


'regis'; king

by CharlotteDaBookworm



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Assassination, Child Death, Gen, Infant Death, Mors is a very bad father, Poisoning, Siblings, descriptions of child death, descriptions of disease, implied child neglect, meningitis, seriously who gave Mors kids wtf
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-30
Updated: 2019-09-30
Packaged: 2020-11-08 09:57:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,074
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20833574
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CharlotteDaBookworm/pseuds/CharlotteDaBookworm
Summary: In 701M.E., Mors Lucis Caelum stares down at the sleeping child in the bassinet with cold eyes...In 703M.E., Mors Lucis Caelum stares down at the sleeping child in the bassinet with cold eyes...In 706M.E., Mors Lucis Caelum stares down at the sleeping child in the bassinet with cold eyes.He smiles.





	'regis'; king

**Author's Note:**

> I don't own FFXV

* * *

In 701M.E., Mors Lucis Caelum stares down at the sleeping child in the bassinet with cold eyes.

The Crystal is silent in his ears.

The child is sickly and pale, his every breath stuttering and shallow, tiny arms pulled close to a chest that hardly rises and falls. Still, the Ring warms against his skin as he passes it over the bassinet and the boy sleeping fitfully in it.

He nods to himself and leaves.

* * *

The boy is named _Vitus_ by his mother; it is both recognition of the little Prince’s struggle to survive and a plea to the Astrals that he continues to do so.

* * *

Prince Vitus Lucis Caelum dies before he meets his third month.

* * *

The poison is well-chosen, a subtle thing designed to mimic a weakness of the lungs.

It steals the breath of the young Prince, leaves a child hardly recovered from the stress of his premature birth wheezing and gasping for breath until his skin turns blue, makes him cough and heave and hack until blood and phlegm come pouring out of his throat.

_Pneumonia_, they believe at first, or any host of other lung-related illnesses. The doctors of the Citadel attempt all they can, but the Prince responds to no treatment they have available. All they can do, in the end, is keep him sedated.

All they can do is lessen the pain.

_The Prince’s lungs did not fully develop_, they will tell King Mors later, _and the illnesses of his first month did not allow them any time to strengthen themselves_.

_With the severity and speed of the onset of this illness, Prince Vitus had no chance to fight off the infection. His lungs simply weren’t strong enough to cope._

* * *

His death is blamed on his sickly constitution.

_A tragedy_, the people whisper_, but a sign from the gods nonetheless. Clearly the Astrals do not care for weakness of the body in a King._

No one disagrees.

The poison is only discovered when the assassin, grown bold by their success, targets the Queen. The draught slipped into her drink – an echo of the venom slipped into a babes milk – is noticed. The assassin is caught.

They confess.

They die for their crimes.

The Prince is still dead.

* * *

Prince Vitus Lucis Caelum dies before he meets his first birthday.

There are no portraits of him.

His name is never mentioned.

* * *

In 703M.E., Mors Lucis Caelum stares down at the sleeping child in the bassinet with cold eyes.

The Crystal hums, uncertain.

The child glares up at him with unfocused eyes, cheeks a healthy pink and lungs strong and loud, fists flying as she screams. _A fighter_, they had whispered as she was pulled from her mother’s womb. _A little warrior, _they’d smiled. But, when he presses those tiny fists back into the bassinet the Ring remains cool upon his finger.

He frowns to himself and leaves.

* * *

The Queen names the child _Mariana_, for Mars who was a child of War. She names her Mariana, because the life of a royal is a fight to survive and she hopes that it will give her daughter the strength to do so.

* * *

Princess Mariana Lucis Caelum dies at 10 months old.

* * *

The disease spreads quickly, especially amongst the children.

In mere days, it is declared an epidemic – children and adults alike admitted to hospitals all across Insomnia. Everyone, even in the Citadel, is worn thin by attempting to manage the war outside of their borders and the illness inside of it.

There is some worry for the Princess, with her age the infection would almost certainly be deadly, but she’s so isolated – coming into contact with so few people, remaining in the Royal Wing of the Citadel at all times – that the worry is never serious.

_Princess Mariana is safe,_ they tell themselves. _Safer than most of them_.

Until the Princess falls ill.

Headaches, at first, or maybe sensitivity to light- squinting. It’s hard to tell with young children, symptoms easy to overlook as a common childhood malady, or just tiredness or a bad mood. And it is overlooked, by all but her nanny, because her mother is busy with her duties.

Her nanny takes her to the infirmary, but the doctors – overworked and stressed – call it a cold and tell her to leave.

The fever and vomiting that begin less than eight hours later are harder to dismiss.

The Princess fights, aided by antibiotics and doctors, but it isn’t enough.

She dies within the day.

* * *

They eventually track how she was infected to a member of the kitchen staff whose typical duties involved putting the dishes away. They’d had a slight cough towards the end of their shift, nothing unusual, and had coughed in the general direction of the plates that were being used for Princess Mariana’s food.

Later, they themselves were admitted to the hospital.

An accident, that’s all.

Her death has no one to blame, not really.

There is some talk of suing the doctors who had not recognised the symptoms, but such things are easy to dismiss in young children who, otherwise, were generally fine. Squinting in the presence of light, while known now to have been an early symptom, can mean anything in a child Princess Mariana’s age.

Especially with the brightness of the Citadel lights, enough to strain even an adult’s sight.

There is no one to blame.

The Princess is still dead.

* * *

Princess Mariana Lucis Caelum dies before she meets her first birthday.

There are no portraits of her.

Her name is never mentioned.

* * *

In 706M.E., Mors Lucis Caelum stares down at the sleeping child in the bassinet with cold eyes.

The Crystals rings in his ears, clear and loud.

The child blinks up at him, quietly trusting, hands clutching at the blanket, his head tilted as he stares. When he waves his hand over the child, the Ring burns against his skin.

He smiles and it’s cold.

He reaches out, fingers curling around a rosy cheek.

_Finally._

* * *

Mors names him _Regis_.

This one, he knows, will survive to be King.

* * *

Prince Regis Lucis Caelum is presented to the people on his first birthday, green eyes bright and healthy. The people of Lucis love him.

* * *

Twenty-three years later, Regis is crowned King.

* * *

There are multiple portraits of him: on his own; with his father; with his son.

All of the world knows his name.

* * *

His siblings lie in their graves, forgotten.

**Author's Note:**

> creative juices never flow like they do when you're procrastinating revising for a test you're totally gonna fail
> 
> anyway if i missed any tags tell me and i'll add them
> 
> this is sorta inspired by Lux's headcanon that Regis totally had older siblings


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